Air freight falls again in November but pressure easing: IATA

IATA’s latest air freight market analysis, which details figures for November 2019, noted that industry-wide freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) dipped by 1.1% year on year. This marked the 13th consecutive month of year-on-year decline in air freight volumes. However, November’s performance was also the best in eight months, because it showed the slowest year-on-year rate of contraction since March 2019. IATA suggested that the slowdown in declines in November could have been due to huge e-commerce events, such as Single’s Day in Asia and Black Friday, which both took place that month. However, October and November’s performance still marked a disappointing start to the peak season, which is usually the busiest time of year by far in terms of air freight demand. Alexandre de Juniac, CE of IATA, believes peak season was hindered by factors such as the US-China trade war. “Demand for air cargo in November was down 1.1% compared with the previous year,” de Juniac commented. “That’s better than the 3.5% decline posted in October, but it is a big disappointment considering that the fourth quarter is usually air cargo’s peak season”. On a slightly more positive note, he added: “Looking forward, signs of a thawing in US-China trade tensions are good news, but trading conditions at present remain very challenging.” Story has more detailed breakdown of figures.<br/>